The Markets November 14, 2019

AllianceBernstein to Close its Mutual Fund Target-Date Series

The investment firm will be shifting all of its focus to its CIT target-date series.

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AllianceBernstein has decided to close its mutual fund target-date series, the AB Multi-Manager Select Retirement Funds, due to the growing popularity and lower costs of its collective investment trust (CIT) target-date series, the AB Multi-Manager Retirement Trust, Jennifer Delong, head of defined contribution at AllianceBernstein, tells PLANADVISER.

The funds will be closed as of June 25, 2020, Delong says. The funds are now closed to new investments, except for group retirement plans and retail omnibus platforms, she says. “We are giving a long lead time to plan sponsors and advisers so that they can think about what they want to do. We will be reaching out to plan sponsors about our target-date CIT series.”

Both the mutual fund and CIT target-date series “are the same design, with a 60/40 mix of active and passive funds and Morningstar as the subadviser,” Delong says. She says that CITs’ market share of target-date fund assets has grown from 19% in 2012 to 39% in 2018. Because of the tremendous growth in CITs in target-date funds and their lower costs, “we believe the focus should be on CITs,” Delong says. “We really have seen a tremendous growth in CITs as retirement plan advisers learn about their benefits.”

Delong points out that AllianceBernstein’s CIT target-date series is now available to plan sponsors of all sizes, through a partnership with Wilmington Trust. The firm has also eliminated asset minimums for the funds.

Products November 13, 2019

Financial Finesse Expands Offering for Advisers

Financial Finesse enterprise (FFe) is focused on serving financial services firms seeking to evolve their impact by providing participants with access to financial coaching resources designed to accommodate all life stages.

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Financial Finesse has launched the Financial Finesse enterprise (FFe), a distinct arm of business focused exclusively on serving select financial services firms seeking to evolve their impact by providing participants with access to financial coaching resources designed to accommodate all life stages.

It enables financial services providers to directly engage with every individual participant via a combination of personalized digital and phone based financial coaching services.

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Recognizing how critical it is to empower the demographic of financially stressed employees, progressive retirement plan advisers are partnering with FFe as a safe and scalable way to empower them with access to the financial wellness services they so desperately need in order to enhance retirement preparedness from their first day on the job.

According to Ed Gimenez, President of Raffa Retirement, “The ability to provide every single participant with unlimited and personalized financial coaching support via Financial Finesse has completely evolved how I run my practice and how many lives I am able to positively impact. With the growing financial challenges employees face today, the holistic support and unlimited access FFe’s team of financial coaches provides is critical to actually having any real impact on a large scale. FFe is in line with everything we stand for as a business and has become a direct extension of both our brand and our social mission.”

“While we have historically specialized in delivering high-touch services designed for large-scale organizations, I started Financial Finesse in 1999 with a mission to empower the masses,” says Financial Finesse Founder and CEO, Liz Davidson. “The ability to help employees at organizations of all sizes is mission critical, so we started offering streamlined versions of our programs via a select network of distribution partners over five years ago. Now that we have a tested and proven model, where 92% of employees surveyed are making changes to their finances as a result of the program, we have entered into a rapid innovation phase with plans to pursue deeper partnerships with firms that share our values. This is so much more than providing financial security 20 or 30 years from now. These programs make it possible for employees to literally change their lives tomorrow.”

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